In 30 years, Vanessa will be 3 times as old as she is right now. How old is she right now?
Solution: We can use the given information to write down an equation about Vanessa's age. Let Vanessa's age be $v$ In 30 years, she will be $v + 30$ years old. At that time, she will also be $3 v$ years old. Writing this information as an equation, we get: $v + 30 = 3 v$ Solving for $v$ , we get: $2 v = 30$ $v = 15$.